1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to electronic networks, and relates more particularly to a system and method for performing a hierarchical remote query in an electronic network.
2. Description of the Background Art
Implementing an effective method for managing communications between software elements that reside on electronic devices within an electronic network is a significant consideration for manufacturers and designers of contemporary electronic devices. An electronic device in a distributed electronic network may advantageously communicate with other remote electronic devices in the network to share and substantially increase the resources available to individual devices in the network. For example, an electronic network may be implemented in a user""s home to enable flexible and beneficial sharing of resources between various consumer electronic devices, such as personal computers, digital video disk devices, digital set-top boxes for digital broadcasting, television sets, and audio playback systems.
Managing and controlling efficient communications in a network of electronic devices may create substantial challenges for designers of electronic networks. For example, enhanced demands for increased functionality and performance many require more system processing power and require additional hardware resources across the network. An increase in processing or hardware requirements may also result in a corresponding detrimental economic impact due to increased production costs and operational inefficiencies.
Network size and device functionality are also factors that affect the control and management of an electronic network. Communications in an electronic network typically become more complex as the number of individual devices or nodes increases. Assume that a particular device on an electronic network is defined as a local device with local software elements, and other devices on the electronic network are defined as remote devices with remote software elements. Accordingly, a local software element on the local device may need to communicate with various remote software elements on remote devices across the electronic network. However, successfully managing a substantial number of electronic devices across a single network may provide significant benefits to a system user.
Furthermore, enhanced device capability to perform various advanced functions may provide additional benefits to a system user, but may also place increased demands on the control and management of various devices in the electronic network. For example, an electronic network that effectively accesses, processes, and displays digital television programming may benefit from efficient network management techniques because of the large amount and complexity of the digital data involved.
In addition, initiating and managing complex messaging processes between various devices over an extended electronic network may consume substantial amounts of processing resources from the various devices that form the electronic network. For example, as the number of devices and corresponding software elements on an electronic network increase, a given message that is repeatedly propagated to software elements across the electronic network may create an undue amount of network traffic and thus have an adverse effect on overall performance of the electronic network.
Therefore, for all the foregoing reasons, implementing an effective method for managing communications between various software elements in a distributed electronic network remains a significant consideration for designers, manufacturers, and users of electronic devices.
In accordance with the present invention, a system and method are disclosed for performing a hierarchical remote query in an electronic network. Initially, local registries in the electronic network preferably classify remote registries into discrete categories depending upon the relative capabilities of their host devices on the electronic network.
In one embodiment of the present invention, an added-device notification is preferably generated and provided to registries in the electronic network whenever a new device is added to the electronic network. Each local registry then responsively sends a query to self-describing data residing in memory of the new device. Each local registry then preferably calculates a capability value for the new device, based upon parameters such as processing power, memory resources, and communications bandwidth. Each local registry may then advantageously classify the registry of the new device into an appropriate category based on the relative capability of the new device.
The present invention then utilizes the discrete categories of remote registries to efficiently perform a remote query procedure to locate a target software element for a network messaging process. In practice, whenever a local query from a local software module to a local registry is unsuccessful in locating a target software element for the network messaging process, then the local registry initially creates and broadcasts a remote query only to the most-capable category of remote registries on the electronic network.
If the initial remote query is successful, then the remote query process terminates, and a software element identifier for the target software element is preferably returned to the local software module that initiated the query process. However, if the initial remote query is unsuccessful, then the local registry repeatedly rebroadcasts the remote query to successive categories of remote registries from less capable devices, until either a successful remote query reply is received or all categories have been queried without a successful reply.
The present invention thus initially propagates a remote query only to devices with relatively greater processing power and communications bandwidth to provide a rapid query response without significantly depleting valuable network processing resources needed for other tasks. Furthermore, the present invention initially propagates the remote query only to devices with relatively greater memory resources and higher concentrations of individual software elements to thereby substantially increase the likelihood of a successful remote query response, while simultaneously reducing the amount of messaging traffic across the electronic network. The present invention thus effectively and efficiently performs a hierarchical remote query in an electronic network.